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No Dino 206/246 ever came out with Ferrari badges. Even the initial four seater Dino 308s by Bertone came all badged as Dinos. Towards the end of their production, some had Ferrari badging, due to the outcry of the Ferrari dealers where the cars were sold. Believe it or not, they did not come out of the factory with side rear view mirrors either. Everything was dealer installed. This is why restoring one or building a model is real pain, since you can find reference photos that greatly defer in the spec of the car. I have a friend who restored a 308 (PI MAGNUM car) and we could nod believe the nightmare he had to go through. Got a door from a different car to replace his badly damaged one and there was more than an inch difference in the length of the two. These cars were true hand builds and a lot of times the details on them depended on which day of the week they were made and how much wine Luigi and Guido had the night before.

Jon, Dan and Arno, thank you very much guys. Tomorrow I need to polish the Nero Stelatto parts. Also bought some solder to make the exhaust for it. I may go in the garage and give my lathe a workout too and make me some cool mufflers. I am planning on starting final assembly tomorrow.

Thank you Art. The body has been cleared and will be polished tomorrow. I will hate tomorrow. Four bodies need to be wet sanded and polished. That is the part of building I hate with a passion. Lots of elbow grease goes into those mirror finishes.

Thank you very much guys. I am glad to see all the positive comments. It is greatly appreciated. Now to answer the two questions about the stance and the paint. The paint is self etching automotive primer, available in any O'Riley's auto store. The fenders, body and hoods were sprayed maybe 10 years ago in preparation for a supposed dark green metallic. Kinda like British racing green. However the parts spent many years sitting on shelfs collecting dust and sometimes under the sun. This created this naturally faded effect, because……well….it's natural. Over time I lost the hoods. I have no idea where did they go. Then what happened, was that I saw a Street rod in Rodder's Journal that just blew me away. It had this mean stance, very simple and pure with vintage look to it. And it was British green. First thing that went through my mind was "I got just the body for this". But then I could not find the hoods. I was thinking I will just paint the whole thing and make new ones. But then when I was mocking the suspension on, I liked the way it looked. The front bumper has been slightly lowered and this creates the illusion of the car sitting even lower than it actually is. The spring and the mounting tabs on the front axle have been ground as far as possible. Combined with the smaller tires and lifting the rear about 1mm creates the "in the weeds" look. The exact same thing without the fenders and the bumpers will not have the same effect. I am building a 5 window like this, but with the Phantom Vicky wheels/tires and it is trouble, as the rears don't fit in the fenders. While playing with the suspension, Revell released the 5 window coupe and the minute I saw that motor, I knew my good ole Deuce will not need the lost hoods. I built the interior to have like a nice rich leather colors combined with black and brush detailed the dash to have yellow gauges to tie in the engine and rear end. If I could afford it, this would be the exact three window I would build in real life, except it would be shiny. I left this one in primer and added quite few very minor details to it. The front left fender has a "repair" on it's edge. There are "stains" here and there. There are spill marks right under the gas filler etc.. All these are pretty invisible, unless I point them out, but they give it just the right patina. This is the car that inspired the model

The body was repainted and cleared together with three others. I wet-sanded it tonight. Will take pictures tomorrow. The interior is also done. I had to make backs for the seats, as the kit does not provide them. Then everything was sprayed with SEM "Light Buckskin" and the interior was flocked with red matching the Rosso Fuoco. I love working with SEM paint. It is designed to stick to anything. Requires very little prep work. It can handle hot lacquer on top of it. But best part is that it looks and feels like leather and it cures in minutes. The only downside is that it only comes in spray cans.

Nice build. Love the color.

Because when this car came out it was Dino. And Dino was a supposed to be separate brand. The car never had Ferrari anywhere on it. It was badged as a Dino, the engine was cast as a Dino and the car was promoted as a Dino. Enzo was stubborn and refused to put his name on a V6. It was supposed to be "a poor man's Ferrari". However, today, these cars are considered as "part of the family" and many had Ferrari badges added to them.

Tecnically not a Ferrari, but still cool find.

I finally finished this one. I know that a lot of people will disagree with me, but this is what a real hot rod should be. Not too high tech and not too ratty either. Just pure power and attitude. The model is build as a quick fun project (which end up taking about 10 years to be finally 100% finished). Everything is pretty much box stock 3 window with the motor from the 5 window, wheels and tires from the roadster and the steering wheel from the AMT Phantom Vicky. I wasn't sure what license plate to go with, when I ran across the decal sheet from some Ferrari model and thought that it would be pretty cool to put this plate on an unfinished rod.

Thank you guys. Appreciate the kind words. Here is the bed completed And this is what it looks like in the back of the body. Now I need to mix some paint to make the bottom of the curtains dark antique gold. I already made new "glass" for the sides and got some dry transfers to make the writing on it.

Dual adjustable coil overs, ZR1 sway bars and links, Rtk built transmission, Z06 torque tube, 3:71 diff with Z06 output shafts, RST dual clutch, Breathless performance ram air intake, custom carbon fiber airbridge, silicone couplings, Ported throttle body/plenum, long tube headers, Corsa cat back, OEM C6Z06 wheels, 325/30-19 rear and 275/35-18 Nitto Invo tires, TPS short throw shifter, Corbeau FX1 Pro seats in alcantara, Hardbar, Corbeau harness, Carbon fiber vented hood, C5R headlights, custom computer tune. Next winter it should get a brand new LS3 motor. Goal is 600hp.

I've been to Al's many times years ago. They were the only ones at the time that could get me Protar 1:12 Ferraris rather cheap and fast. Great people. But as far as I know, they paid rent. And I believe this is the number one problem with making the numbers work. I know Bill and his wife from LaGrange Hobby shop personally. He owns the building free and clear. And on top of the shop there are like 4 apartments or so. Back when I lived in Chicago, that entire top floor was in ruins. Literally! Then he started clearing it and fixing it. I last saw Bill in 2006 and back then he told me that his wife's chiropractic clinic also took off. So you can't really compare his situation to anyone else's. It is like the tiny paint shop, where I get my paints from. They pump their chest being the oldest in the area and how long they have survived…blah, blah, blah……But the reality is that my buddy Zach's grandfather owned the whole piece of prime land and built on it a tiny "shopping center" kinda thing with a huge parking. So now Zach has the paint shop, his sister a Salon next to it, then there are couple small stores (one is Smoker Friendly) and then there is a very popular Latino restaurant. So even if they lose a $1000 a month from the paint shop they are still making bank from the rent on the rest of the property. Also I would like to note that as much as I would like to support my "local" shop, it is starting to make less and less sense. The closest shop to me is about 100 miles away. and pretty much anything in it I can get for half price online delivered to me in 3 days. My kid wants to build a model. He is 8 and likes the wacky show rods. So $40 for the Paddy Wagon from the shop after 3 hours lost in driving and $40 for gas, so my kid can practice?! Sorry, but that is not sustainable. I think that what is happening is only natural.

Looks really nice in yellow. Nice clean build.

Everything is dry to the touch and safe to handle, but I don't feel it has cured completely to be sanded and polished. So I worked on some other details. Like the brake lines. For this I used some molded bolt heads, which I drilled, square plastic stock that was also drilled and thin solder. The styrene tiny block was glued to the rear end and brake lines were made from the solder. The drilled bolt heads were cut off and put on the lines. And everything in its place. The block was painted aluminum and the fittings brass gold. A third line was added, which will go into the frame. I know that fo models it is cooler looking to have the brake and fuel lines running visible under the cars to show more detail, but I like to build models the way I would do it in real life. So everything will run in the frame rails. Suspension mocked up. Stance is exactly where I wanted it. For this I needed to do the usual front axle mods. And a quick try of the body too. Quite a bit more work left, but it's getting there.

Been there hundreds of times. The amount of unfinished models I have is unreal. But every once in a wile I pick one up and finish it up. I think it would be cool to grab this one by the horns and take it all the way.

Yeeeyyyyy, almost at the finish line……Everything has been clear coated and now Just need to wait to cure. By end of next week this thing should be in the display case.

As much as we all hate it, a new era is coming, called online shopping. Actually it has been coming for some time.

Thanks for sharing the memories Russel, but in 1989 the shriek was provided by V12s.

Gorgeous color combination.

Looking really good so far. Not a big fan of flat black on cars, but old led sleds pull it off.

Most of the time I drive my Subaru Wagon. Weather permitting and if without family with me, I get around in this

I can not speak for the young members on here, but everyone else I am pretty sure is familiar with the cartoon Pink Panther. Well, in the beginning of each episode there was the Pink Panther car driven by a little kid. To say this car looked wild is an understatement. The only one to have made it in kit form is Doyusha/Eldon from Japan. It was released in a series of show rods that included the Outhouse, Milk truck, Bathtub, Evader and the Pink Panther. All of these are pretty impossible to find our days. The only available Pink Panther I have seen lately was selling for $175. But I am not a collector. I like to build. I collect diecast models (and build them too). But collecting plastic models never made any sense to me as you are basically collecting cardboard boxes with pictures on them. So I am having a blast. For the fuzzy interior I bought a kids bunny harness and a matching color nail polish. How many times could you say that you gutted a bunny to build your model? Groovy!

The Pink Panther show car.

This was a kit I always wanted to build since I saw one in a hobby shop in Belgium more than 20 years ago. Then at the Heartland Nationals few years ago, I found it on one of the tables for sale in a Ziplock bag, without the original box. I don't remember what I paid for it, but it was less than what a current model goes for in my "local" hobby shop. I did not take any pictures in the beginning, but I'll start from where I am at right now. First thing was to get the right color. Nailpolish section in Target to the rescue. The frame is painted semigloss black, the engine block gold and the interior has not been started yet. Here is the time to say, that this is a horrible kit. The body is a chore to get together smooth without any visible gaps. The doors are pretty much impossible to make to open and close so they will be fixed open as per the instructions. There are no decals. There is not even a steering wheel included. If anyone has looked at this kit, they would have seen that there is no radiator, no fuel thank and no exhaust of any sort. And actually this is accurate. I searched quite a bit about the real car. The original (which has changed quite a bit over the years) actually had an electric motor and the V8 was just a dummy. So it really did not have fuel tank, radiator or exhaust. And I am leaving it this way. However, I will have to make some parts, simply because they were missing.

Dan, Dave and Daniel, thank you guys. So the headliner was fitted in and painted. Both the headlights and the wire wheels from the 32 Tudor were dechromed with over cleaner and painted. [ Then the wheels had their hubcaps foiled. Everything was painted Nero Stellato but not cleared yet. At this time the bottom of the bed received its bolts…. …and the top of the bed got foiled. The runners on the side are chrome and rollers in the middle are gold (brass) The other day I was with my wife at Hobby Lobby with my wife and looked around wile waiting for her. I got some crosses from the jewelry section and these really cool turned brass door knobs for doll houses. And here is what the bed will look like when done. It has the brass door knobs as coffin guides on the sides. The "stop" on the far end is from a boothill express extra chrome tree I had and so are the the two chrome handles on the corners of the table. From the brief research I did online, hearses have sliding tables that come out the back (or the side on some), so this is what the handles are for and the stop on the far end keep the coffin from hitting the wall. The brass guides keep it from moving side to side. Or at least that's what I tried to make. Now everything has to be clear coated and polished.